For those whose acquaintance with Oxford's Isaiah Berlin rests primarily on Russian Thinkers (1978), this, the second of four volumes of his essays, may be a surprise. Best known as a historian of ideas, Berlin began his career as a philosopher, and, as he himself notes in a preface, these philosophical essays bear the stamp of the debates within British philosophy current 30 years ago. In essays entitled "Verification" (1939), "Empirical Propositions and Hypothetical Statements" (1950), and "Logical Translation" (1950), Berlin took his stand against empiricism, and particularly against the effort to render philosophical statements "scientific." These are heavy going, written in the curiously simple language of British philosophy—"what exists but is not here exists and is not here in exactly the same sense of 'exists' as what is—does exist—here"—with its talk of tables, chairs, and Napoleon's three-cornered hat. But even if these essays are relics, they are also documents in Berlin's intellectual development, and on a closer look they do connect with his more famous work. Other essays here provide a bridge, In "The Purpose of Philosophy" (1962), "The Concept of Scientific History" (1960), "Does Political Theory Still Exist?" (1961), and "'From Hope and Fear Set Free'" (1964) he stresses the importance of the historical element—manifested in language and invisible to empiricism—in the way people see themselves and the world. The task of the humanist intellect is not to make scientific statements, but to reveal the pluralism of world views while stripping away the accumulated veneers of myth and dogma. We therefore see Berlin, an essayist born, traveling from empiricism to Tolstoy.
Pub Date: March 1, 1979
ISBN: 0691002347
Page Count: 202
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
